The Primal Hunter

The group had previously considered their immediate plan of action upon reaching the ground, with the first objective being to find somewhere safe to set up a camp. The artificial sun in the sky seemed to have moved a bit during their short stay, indicating a day-night cycle.

Bertram had made the educated guess that nighttime would prove even more dangerous than daytime. If beasts filled this forest, they guessed some of them had to be nocturnal. One couldn’t ignore the threat of other humans taking advantage of the cover of darkness either.

After walking out of the clearing where the pillar had sunk into the ground, they wandered into the forest. The tension of everyone increased as they found themselves in a far more confined space. The first objective was to hopefully find a source of water to place their camp close to. Due to the trees' dense crowns, it was impossible to spot anything from up on the pillar, so they had to go in blind.

As they walked, gawking at the environment, Jake was weirdly relaxed. Despite his vigilance of whatever may lurk behind the trees around him, he had a feeling that nothing would sneak up on them. He listened for potential dangers still, of course, a difficult task as it wasn't exactly the silent kind of forest. Birds sang, distant roars of beasts rang out frequently, and the rustling of the leaves as the wind swept through was louder than what he was used to. This was likely linked to his slightly higher perception.

As their frontline heavy warrior, Bertram, went over a small hill, he suddenly came to a stop. Jacob quickly walking up to stand beside him. Jake was all the way in the back, but he could still hear them due to their proximity.

“What are those things?” Bertram asked as he looked down the hill at another small clearing. Jake walked up beside them, being the last to arrive. He looked down at a group of what he assumed to be the mentioned beasts of some sort.

“They look like large badgers. Though judging from the deer-like thing they are eating, I think they have upped their diet quite a bit,” Jacob answered, turning to the rest of the group. “We already agreed that we might need to hunt. These things don’t look very dangerous, so we should be able to handle them. Any thoughts?”

Jake looked at the big badgers. Four of them, each the size of German shepherds. From how they ate the deer-thing, they without a doubt had sharp teeth and claws, as they ripped the flesh off the thing. The perception of their surroundings seemed lackluster, though, to say the least as none of the things had noticed him or the others in his group yet, despite them only being 30 or so meters away.

The feeling they gave him wasn't one of danger at all. In fact, he had a feeling that handling them would be easy.

Interrupting Jakes thoughts, the other archer, Casper, pitched in:

“I vote for hunting. From the roars in the distance, it sounds like much more dangerous things are around, and they may even be our source of dinner tonight. They seem to be low-level beasts,” he said, getting a nod from Jacob. Hearing the word, level, Jake mentally slapped himself in the face yet another time today, wondering why he hadn't tried to use Identify yet. This is what the damn skill is for, he thought grumpily.

Focusing on the beasts one by one, as he phased out the conversation around him, he got what he hoped for, somewhat

[??? - lvl 3]

[??? - lvl 4]

[??? - lvl 3]

[??? - lvl 3]

I'm just saying, maybe they are

not slightly ferret-like, I'm saying that

Lina, one of the casters, arguing about something pointless. Not exactly surprising. They were cousins and had an ongoing, never-ending charade of pointless discussions going on, some spanning days or

confess he couldn't see the resemblance to either creature... but then again, he didn't know the difference between the two anyway.

two cousins, the other medium warrior besides Jacob, Theodore, seemed to have had the same idea as Jake. “Guys,

great initiative! Why didn’t I think of that!” Jacob cheered and patted Theodore on his back. Turning to Jake, he asked. “Hey Jake, do you have any thoughts on what to

them. Three of them are level 3, and one of them is 4,” Jake added. He had never done well in big groups like this, especially when all nine of the others turned his way. Seriously, he just hoped for the useless chatter to stop and the fighting to

had the jump.

seems like fighting them is the decision. Now

the beasts. After the earlier discussion, they had retreated behind the hill again to avoid the things spotting them. Peeking up over the hill occasionally, the badger-maybe-weasel-maybe-ferret-like beasts did not seem to be in any kind of a hurry with

trying to go in the front with his shield and get their attention, while Jacob and

maybe a bit overboard for overgrown badgers, but no one seemed willing to take any risk. A sentiment that

that and they would fizzle out of

for that matter, if he could even throw them that far. And as for Casper… the first time he had ever

last 10 or so minutes making. That the planning had been a waste,

with everyone staring at him. His well-hidden

tip, with fletchings made of a kind of feather he did not immediately

lack of confidence was all around. They weren’t fighters. The only one who appeared to have some

walked up over the small hill, followed

the beasts and nocked the arrow. He raised his bow as he focused. His vision instantly sharpened, instinctively knowing that Archers Eye had activated. Time seemed to slow down ever so slightly

the first time today, something felt right. The morning routine, work, the introduction, and everything else was just… wrong. But at this one moment, as he held the bow, everything felt like it was as it should be. He smiled, took aim, and shot the arrow. Before even seeing the result, he had already taken out

head, but he had limited knowledge of their physiology. The heart couldn't be placed

its head from the carcass

registered what had happened, the second arrow arrived, hitting the left-most badger square in its chest, penetrating deeply. The remaining two badgers looked over at

shallow scratch on the one on the right as it dodged. Jake only managed to

their teeth into Jake, a huge figure moved in front of him, carrying a huge shield and a short-sword, followed by Theodore and Jacob off to each of his sides. Jake flanked around, still hidden behind